Page 63

I wrapped my fingers around the guru bead dangling from the jade mala, pulling the silver enchanted garrote free, and caught the imposture's wrist and twisted my hands, tangling him up. The wire wrapped around his wrist before I pushed against his limited strength, pinning his arm to his chest, and causing him to hit himself in the face with his own hand.

It took great restraint not to tell him to stop hitting himself.

The angle I had his wrist at caused it to press against the underside of his chin, forcing his head back and up at an awkward angle that prevented him from moving.

The seemingly unlimited length of the enchanted garrote allowed me to pull it out farther, and I wrapped it around his neck, securing his arm to his neck; the wire pressing deep into his skin, keeping him as immobilized as possible.

"Who sent you?" I demanded.

He swung on me with the other hand, and I easily leaned to the side, his fist missing completely.

When tried again, since he was a slow learner, I grabbed his wrist and did a Kotegaeshi Aikido wrist lock, and he cried out in pain.

What a wuss. I'm not even trying to break his wrist!

"Who sent you in here pretending to be Prince de Babineaux?" I asked again, lessening the pressure I had on his wrist that wasn't bleeding.

"Go to hell, you bitch," he sneered, fighting against the hold I had on him.

His struggle caused the garrote to seemingly respond to his fight and it tightened around him even more, severing the tendons and ulnar artery in his wrist, causing arterial spray to cover my face and bedding with blood.

"Asshole!" I shrieked. "This was new bedding!"

His eyes rolled back in his head, and white foam started to form at the corners of his mouth as his tongue swelled some and darkened.

"I don't care who you are, but you will tell me who sent you," I warned.

"You did," he snarled. "I waited for you, waited for you for so long, and this is how you repay me?"

"Repay you?" I asked, breaking the wrist I had a Kotegaeshi Aikido wrist lock on and he cried out in pain before he violently started convulsing, causing the garrote to cut into his flesh more.

I was tired of the games and this wasn't anything like the Sibyl vision.

"You promised me I would get my reward!" he yelled, causing me to lean back, away from him some, before he started choking on his tongue, his eyes clouding over to milky white.

"Reward?" I whispered, confused, looking at the bleeding male under me.

A throaty chuckle broke past his bloody lips, but it wasn't coming from him; the tone was different, it was evil and it caused my senses to go on high alert and my eyes moved around the room, looking for the threat.

"Reward?" they mused. "You were merely a puppet to play with as she pointed out," they tauntingly said, their milky white eyes snapping to mine before their black, slimy tongue caressed over their rotting teeth. "So much fun the puppet was, but they got oh so boring oh so quickly. How did you know, you annoying little brat?" they asked.

"Who in the hell are you?" I demanded.

They made a weird sound that could only be described as perverse pleasure before licking their lips with their slimy black tongue. "Such an annoying little brat, so much time and energy, and such talent is wasted on a lost cause that requires so much proper stimulation... Ooh, then again, I could stimulate you and then some. Master told me to behave, but I am done waiting. Let us play, Princess," they gurgled before sitting up in a blur of movement, their teeth wildly snapping at my throat, only the garrote kept them back so they couldn't reach me before maniacal laughter broke past their lips.

I scrambled away from them, falling off the end of the bed, and backed myself up against the door, the garrote attached to my wrist like a leash.

"What is wrong, do you not want to play with me?" they mockingly asked in a singsong tone, sounding like a little girl.

Each word that left their lips was accompanied by a gurgle of blood as the garrote continued to cut into their wrist and neck.

"No, never did," I said.

"Too bad," they snarled, trying to rip their hand away from their neck and the garrote severed it. "Oh no, now I'll never play chopsticks on the piano," they complained, waving their bloody stump through the air, slinging blood all around.

"Huh, you don't see that every day," I mumbled, watching the puppet fling blood all over the room.

"Now that I fixed that one," they cheerfully said before throwing themselves back on the mattress and then bridging off of the bed. Their shoulders rolled and popped, lifting them up before their upper body spun around, completely twisting their lower spine, their toes digging into the mattress as they pulled themselves up.

This is some The Exorcist-type shit.

"Boo!" they yelled, causing me to jump, startled before laughter erupted from their bloody lips.

I blindly reached behind me with my other hand, trying to open the bedroom door, but the handle wouldn't budge, as if someone was holding it from the other side.

"What's wrong, Princess? You wanted to play, let's play," they mused and started walking backward away from me.

They moved up the wall behind the bed, their toes and fingers clawing into the plaster, leaving deep gouges, before scurrying along the ceiling.

I snorted, getting to my feet, and stealing their attention.

I am on my own.

The realization made me chuckle.

It wasn't funny in the least, but at least it would keep the others safe from whatever in the hell this thing was.

"Why are you laughing?" they demanded, stopping, hanging there from the ceiling.

I smirked, holding up my other hand, and motioned towards the mala around my wrist.

"How quick you are to forget I hold your leash," I teasingly reminded them before raising my hands over my head, locking my fingers, then snapping them downward as hard as I could, dropping to the floor to create as much force as possible.

The silver garrote tightened in response and ripped the creature from the ceiling, and they landed on the bed with a shrill of protest, bouncing off the mattress before smashing into the wall.

"Stupid, blinded by ambition, Bitch," I tisked, pulling the garrote tighter causing them to fly across the room and smash into the wall next to the closet.

They snarled, looking at me from their back. "You cannot beat me so easily, Princess," they started to taunt, their voice came from all around the room, the body no longer able to communicate due to their severed larynx, before I pulled my hands across my body. The force pulled them across the room again and they smashed into the bed, their clawed toes digging into the mattress to keep from bouncing off.

"I can do this all day," I warned.

"You think so? Ha! You know nothing... You know one thing that I do not. How did you know so readily?" they demanded. "It was a seamless polymorph. Even the Prince wouldn't have known the difference between it and himself. Tell me how you knew and I will contemplate letting you walk away slightly unscathed."

I smirked. "Tell me who you are first," I said. "No, tell me who your master is. I don't give a damn about you. I want the boss fight."

Tendrils of green vegetation slithered out from the bottoms of their jeans and snaked down the sides of the bed and along the floor, heading toward me.

I jumped in the air just as I flicked the mala in my hands upward, causing the garrote to unwrap from around their neck like a whip before the guru bead came racing back towards me, making contact with the crystalline-coated dart of grass that shot out at me.

Paradoxical laughter filled the air when I landed on the balls of my feet and readied for the next attack.

"Tell me," they taunted.

"When you stop observing is when you make mistakes," I said with a smile. "Something I will not be as slow with in the future."

They growled in irritation.

That wasn't what they wanted to hear and it'll only make them more paranoid of how I was able to tell the puppet from the real Viggo.

"Come on, Princess, play with me," they taunted from the bed, trying to right their head that was lolling from side to side from the broken neck I was responsible for. "Are you not a fan of my garden? You should be, because you will soon be joining it."

Again, paradoxical laughter echoed all around the room and my left eye started to twitch.

"Burn them," they taunted before their laughter returned, and with it more and more tendrils of vegetation came from the body, completely covering the mattress like a moving, pulsing blanket before it started slithering across the floor.

None of this was in the vision.

Both eyes started twitching from the psyche and mental assault their laughter was causing, and it was expertly timed to prevent me from being able to get any semblance of an attack plan.

"No," I shouted over their laughter.

They abruptly stopped laughing.

"No?" they asked, confused. "Why not? That is the easiest way to get rid of grass and nature attacks. Have they taught you nothing at this damn school?!" they demanded.

That was interesting and not what I thought would be their biggest complaint at the moment.

"I had top honors in Botany and Principles of Ensorceling Horticulture," I informed them. "Using fire against cogon grass will only cause this entire dormitory to be consumed in a flash fire that even Fire Elementals wouldn't be able to control, because it is, in essence, a Devilry-fueled lawn of death. It's a very nice choice, I give you that: deep rooting, no way your puppet could have yanked the roots out once you had your claws in him, and designed to burn all evidence away. Props for knowing your stuff, but I'm not a novice regardless of my age and homeschooling background, it's low-hanging fruit that I'm not dumb enough to go for."

"Pity. It would have been fun to watch this place go up in flames," they said. "But, the opportunity may still present from the wounded pride of those you are in the care of. Rash and stupid actions by silly little brats that shouldn't be allowed to live. I'm putting my money on that one lighting this place up."

This thing was insane, and I knew they were speaking of Riven, which meant they knew more than they should when it came to the inner dealings of my Academy family and associates.

"I will find you, we will find you, and that is when you will burn," I promised.

They chuckled.

"You have a baby backbone after all," they mused. "It is truly adorable, but by the time I am done with you, you will wish I would have burned you!" they snarled before their head violently jerked from side to side as if an invisible force had a hold of them, trying to put it back in its place before they smirked, their milky eyes snapping to mine. "Now I got you!" they shouted.

My lack of being startled by their theatrics disappointed them, I could tell.

I shrugged, indifferent, then smirked when the curtains started to flutter and my hair started to blow around me. "Death was always a possibility when you walked into this room. Death is forever a constant in our world," I agreed, stealing the mirth from them and their eyes widened when I pulled the guru bead out in front of me and readied for their attack. "But to the death, I will fight, and if I take you with me, so be it!" I snarled and it was followed by a gale-force wind that ripped the curtains from the rods and sent furniture flying across the room.